One of the most interesting individuals ever to live in the Two Egg area was William Augustus Bowles, the individual celebrated in Fort Walton Beach today as the pirate "Billy Bowlegs."

Born in Maryland, Bowles was a young boy at the time of the American Revolution. It is little remembered today how divided the colonies were at the time or that many families were steadfast in their loyalty to King George and England. Bowles came from such a family and as a young teenager enlisted in a Tory or Loyalist regiment (i.e. one loyal to the King) in Maryland.

Sent to Pensacola, which was then a major English stronghold on the Gulf Coast (Florida was a British colony during the war), he was not popular with his commanding officers and was drummed out of the service. Cast adrift far from home, with no money and no means of support, he set out from Pensacola in what likely was an attempt to return home.

It is most likely that Bowles was trying to follow the old Pensacola-St. Augustine Road, which despite its name was little more than a foot path through the wilderness. The portion through Jackson County ran along the route of today's State Highway 2. Small parts of the original trail can still be seen in the Forks of the Creek area between Campbellton and Malone.

Following the trading path was not easy and Bowles became lost in the vast wilderness that then covered Northwest Florida. Hungry and exhausted, he was wandering aimlessly through the woods when he was discovered by a party of Indians on their way back from a trading visit to Pensacola. Taking pity on the young man, they rescued him and took him back to their village.

Bowles' rescuers were from Tellmochesses, the town of William Perryman which stood just 7 miles east of Two Egg near today's Parramore community. The Perryman family was one of the most important among the Lower Creeks. Allied with the British against the Americans, they provided manpower and horses to the English forces in St. Augustine and led their warriors in battle in both Florida and Georgia. They played a significant role in the American Revolution in the South.

William's father, Thomas, lived just across the Chattahoochee in what is now Seminole County, Georgia, and was the overall leader of the Perryman towns, which were scattered along both sides of the river from Parramore up into Alabama. Some 20 years later he would become the primary Seminole chief.

He and his family, who were descendants of an English trader and his Creek wife, all spoke English and were prosperous, well-educated people. They lived in regular houses similar to those of frontier plantation owners in Georgia and raised crops as well as large herds of horses and cattle.

Bowles was a charismatic young man and quickly charmed his new hosts, particularly Thomas Perryman. The chief consented for his daughter to marry the young refugee and welcomed him into the family.

Bowles returned to Pensacola twice in the coming years, once in an apparent attempt to find a way home and then at the head of a party of Perryman warriors who went to the

aid of the city when it was attacked by allied forces. Pensacola fell, but Bowles managed to escape with a party of English troops who made their way overland to the Atlantic Coast. He was charged by English officers with the scalping and mutilation of prisoners, but the evidence was insufficient and he once again left the British service.

After briefly visiting his father in Maryland, he returned to the Two Egg area and resumed his life with the Perryman family.

It was at some point during these travels that he devised a scheme of establishing the "State of Muskogee," basically an empire among the Seminoles and Lower Creeks that he would lead. Thus legitimized, he would form a navy on the Apalachicola River which would prey on shipping on the Gulf of Mexico.

Despite capture by the Spanish and a brief imprisonment (from which he escaped), Bowles went forward with his plans. His "State of Muskogee," however, was little more than a front for a flotilla of pirate ships that he sent out onto the Gulf manned by crews of renegade whites, Indians and both free blacks and escaped slaves. These ships preyed on merchant vessels and even engaged Spanish coast guard ships in battle in Apalachicola Bay.

The captured booty from these raids was sent upriver to be safeguarded by his allies, who included the Perryman family.

The smuggled goods and slaves were then traded or sold to Indians and whites from Georgia allowing Bowles and his allies to accumulate a small fortune. Part of this treasure is said to be hidden to this day at the "Money Pond" about 12 miles northeast of Two Egg.

Bowles eventually turned against his father-in-law, however, and ordered his murder. Thomas Perryman escaped, but his son William swore revenge on Bowles and ultimately assisted the Spanish in bringing him to justice. He died in a Cuban prison.

He is celebrated each year at Fort Walton's "Billy Bowlegs Festival," although it is not believed that he ever actually used the name.